The note on the left-hand side of the back states, in cursive: "Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. From your Grandaughter [sic] Anna."

Footnotes1. Around the time this postcard was mailed -- on December 21, 1913 -- Liverpudlian journalist Arthur Wynne published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that is considered to be the first crossword puzzle. Check it out here.
2. Thoma is an interesting name. My understanding is that it's a common historical surname in Germany. (Here's one geneaology site that mentions it.) As a first name, it seems to be a bit less common, especially in the United States.
3. Americans have a long history of being unable to spell (or pronounce) Schuylkill correctly.

Friday, December 9, 2011

The 1971 Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library1, previously featured in posts on August 5 and October 19, is back with a pair of festive recipes for the holiday season. Happy baking!

Stained-Glass Cookies

Cereal Christmas Trees

Footnote1. When I first featured the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library in August, you could buy a complete used set for about $30 on Amazon. Now, Amazon doesn't have any available, but there are plenty of sets to be had on eBay. It looks like you could could pay as little as $14 if you get lucky and don't face much bidding competition.

The film features Katherine Ross, Sam Elliott, Roger Daltrey of The Who and, of course, a cat.

The Berkley paperback, meanwhile, features ... a few hundred pages of Coyne's prose.3

Speaking of prose, the second bookmark is promoting the novels of Warwick Deeping4 (1877-1950), who had a serious-sounding name but was mostly associated with melodramatic historical romances. Titles listed include:

"Sorrell and Son" - The story of a great friendship between a father and a son is now a classic

"Old Pybus" - A novel of two generations, both misunderstood by the generation that stands between

"Doomsday" - A young English girl and her awakening to love

"Kitty"5 - A modern girl who fought for her love and her independence

"Uther and Igraine" - A medieval romance

Anyone ever read anything by Mr. Deeping?

ADDENDUM
Believe it or not, I've only posted about bookmarks three other times:

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Featured today are some advertisements from the August 1963 issue of Farm Journal (cover price, 25 cents). According to Farm Journal Media's history page:1 "Farm Journal was first published in March 1877 for farmers in the bountiful agricultural regions within a day’s ride of the publication’s office in Philadelphia. Founder Wilmer Atkinson was a Quaker, farmer and journalist who insisted that his publication disseminate commonsense information to farmers and their wives."

This is the "Eastern Edition" of the August 1963 issue and was originally mailed to Willard Faught of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. On the contents page, editor Carroll P. Streeter notes that recent changes to the magazine include the typography, "streamlined" writing and appearance, and a new section to give farmers tips on "borrowing money to make money, investing money to best advantage, how to save on taxes, tips on insurance, keeping yourself out of court" and more.

Articles in this issue include:

Fruit Storage for Half the Cost

Slats Buildings for All Types of Stock

Ways to Grow with a Bungalow

Why We Take a Dozen Vacations a Year2

Rigs That Speed Up Silage-Making

Now, on to some of the advertisements...

Western Auto Wizard freezer

This Western Auto advertisement touts the Wizard Upright, which stores 525 pounds of frozen food for $229.953, and the Wizard Deluxe "15" Chest Freezer, which stores 511 pounds of frozen food and costs $199.95.

Both appliances came with the free Wizard $200 Food Protection Plan, which guaranteed against losses from mechanical or electrical failure.

You'll smoke with fresh enthusiasm when you discover the cool "air-softened" taste of Salem

Meanwhile, I wonder if that cigarette was added to the photograph afterward by an illustrator. It looks a little too big and a little too straight.

Also, that man looks like he could be her father. (OK, I'm done now.)

Klutch, for false teeth

Here's an advertisement for Klutch, a product designed to help hold your false teeth in place. According to the text, "KLUTCH forms a comfort cushion; holds dental plates so much firmer and snugger that you can eat and talk with greater comfort and security."

Klutch is still around. The product's box is pictured at right. I found a couple of amusing customer reviews on Amazon's product page:

"My Grandma who is 93 swears this product is it. It is the only thing she has ever used for her false teeth."

"I bought this thinking, 'How the heck does denture adhesive POWDER work??' Very well! I bought these for my vampire fangs, since I can never get the damn solution that comes with the fangs to hold them in place. With previous pairs of fangs, I used Fixodent but since it's pink, it stained the fangs pink :( But this dries clear and is easy to clean out! All I had to do was pour some into the fangs, shove it over my tooth, and wait for the saliva in my mouth to mix with the powder and they stayed put for quite a long time (a few hours, then I had to take them out to eat)."

Sounds like Klutch should get together with the vampire-fangs industry for its next advertising campaign!

The is no information about what ingredients are used in A*C*M Fruit Saver to create this preservation miracle. According to the product's old trademark page, it was a mixture of ascorbic acid and citric acid for treating fresh and preserved fruits and vegetables. The product, which came in the form of a dry powder, also contained lactose.

Footnotes1. Here's another fun tidbit from the Farm Journal Media history page: "In 1982, when computer technology had become even more sophisticated, Farm Journal, in cooperation with printers R.R. Donnelley & Sons, became the first magazine in history to bind its issues electronically, thus customizing magazines based on readers’ crops, livestock, size and region. The May 1984 issue, for example, had 8,896 different versions."

2. In "Why We Take a Dozen Vacations a Year," Minnesota farm woman Ethelyn Pearson writes: "One-day vacations - instead of one long one - suit us best. ... Our one-day vacations give us five or six hours of carefree enjoyment when we need them most, not when the calendar says we can get away. We've never returned from such a day without feeling refreshed. No frantic rush getting ready; no pressure to catch up afterwards."

Ethelyn Pearson, by the way has an interesting claim to fame: hairless cats. According to this Shammicats Sphynx history page: "The first noted naturally occurring Sphynx came from Wadena, Minnesota on the farm of Milt and Ethelyn Pearson, who identified hairless kittens occurring in several litters of their barn cats in the mid 1970's." Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, these hairless female barn cats, Epidermis and Dermis, became an important part of the Sphynx breeding program.

And, yes, I'm absolutely giddy about how far off-topic I am at this point.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Excerpts from a 1937 travel brochure for Poland:Robert Forsythe, a transportation consultant and collector of railway ephemera in the United Kingdom, writes: "Always find this sort of thing very fascinating, especially if added railway interest as there is here. I have some spare communist-era travel leaflets for Poland available. If anyone wishes to contact me I will email a link."

Old business card for Hayes Flying Service: JT Anthony of A Pretty Book writes: "I also find the use of the word 'thru' interesting. I've used it for years, informally, but have seldom seen others using it. Grammar Girl suggests that spelling through as 'thru' could be part of Teddy Roosevelt's simplified spelling campaign. Perhaps the pilot was a fan. I also love the fact that the phone exchange in the phone number is OX, a real word."

I love JT's comment, because I had never known about the Simplified Spelling Board, which operated from 1906 to 1920. According to Wikipedia, "Roosevelt tried to force the federal government to adopt the system, sending an order to the Public Printer to use the system in all public federal documents. The order was obeyed; among the many documents printed using the system was the President's special message regarding the Panama Canal."

For Sarah, ephemera about a castle: Blake Stough of Preserving York -- who is helping with the question about the The Bon-Ton Rental Library (more on that in the coming days) -- writes: "It's funny that you posted this, because my daughter and I were looking online at castles in Wales last week. We took it a step further and I showed her the castles from Google Maps, including Conway. We also used Street View to get an up-close look at them, just like if we were there, which was very cool. Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed."

Thanks, Blake. And I am, indeed, a Google Maps fanatic. And Google Earth might be the greatest invention of the 21st century.

Also regarding this entry, Justin Mann added: "If I had a dollar for every time I've used Legos in a teachable moment...well, I wouldn't even have a dollar, but that's beside the point. I am glad you seized that opportunity, not only for Sarah, but for us all because I sure got a good chuckle out of it!"

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About the Author

I'm Chris Otto, a Pennsylvania resident and journalist whose hobbies and interests include old books, ephemera, history, folklore, alpacas, photography and much more. Never stop reading, learning and asking questions! I consider this blog to be a spiritual descendant of Microsoft Encarta and a companion to Wikipedia. Every piece of paper tells a story.
Reach me at chrisottopa (at) gmail.com.

As (kind of) featured in The New York Times...

Papergreat was mentioned in Stephanie Clifford's August 7, 2011, article in The New York Times titled "Shopper Receipts Join Paperless Age." Find out why, years ago, I held onto a receipt for a hot dog!

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